Microsoft has revealed that the holiday season of 2011 will bring lightsabers and realistic racing to Kinect.
One of the biggest titles announced for Kinect at E3 this year was an unnamed Star Wars game. Demonstration footage showed off a Jedi swatting Stormtroopers and deflecting laser blasts before going up against Darth Vader in a lightsaber duel. According to Microsoft Kinect director Kudo Tsunoda, that game won’t be out until the holiday season of 2011.
Tsunoda spoke to the BBC about Kinect and its future titles in tandem with today’s launch of the device in the UK. Though he says his favorite Kinect game is Kinectimals, what he’s really looking forward to are Kinect’s Star Wars and Forza games.
“We have a Kinect Star Wars game coming out for next holiday [Christmas 2011],” Tsunoda told the BBC. “I think you could just easily imagine being a Jedi and using Kinect to make you feel you’re part of a Star Wars experience, building yourself up into a Jedi. I’ve seen a bunch of the game and it’s super compelling.”
Tsunoda also revealed that a Kinect Forza game, Microsoft’s popular racing series, will be released around the same time. Kinect’s first trailer showed a family playing a driving game with their hands around an invisible wheel and their feet pushing invisible pedals, so this may become a reality once the holiday season of 2011 comes around.
The early footage of Star Wars Kinect looks very active, so I have a feeling that you’ll want to clear the area if someone is playing. I have confidence that Star Wars would work well for Kinect, but I have doubts about a racing title branded with the Forza name. Forza has been about an accurate racing experience in the past, so unless Kinect can replicate the quick feedback of a controller I’m not sure an invisible steering wheel would work very well. Time will tell, but at least we know that Microsoft has new motion gaming experiences in development that go beyond bowling and dancing.
Source: BBC
